Friday Family Feature

Just in case you were wondering what I would look like in fifty years...

Well, I'll probably have a different hair cut, but seriously, there I am fifty years from now.

Meet Treva, my grandma. Her name is pronounced Treevah. Trevan is named after her, we just added an 'n' to his name and his is pronounced differently, like Trevor, but with an 'an' at the end. I was pretty sure no one would name their kid after Grandma, but I wanted to because that is who I most look like in my family, and her name needed to be represented somewhere in her posterity. Though, she doesn't even like her name, and said I shouldn't use the name Trevan.

Growing up seeing this next picture, I always thought my Grandma was so beautiful.

I never felt really pretty, cute maybe, but not pretty. When people would tell me I looked like my grandma, I thought well maybe I am a little pretty if I look like she did.

When I was younger, I always thought grandma was so fashionable, because she had all these fancy high heel shoes that were a lot cooler than the ones my mom would wear. When I would go to her house I would try them all on, and feel so grown up and sassy.

My grandma also introduced me to soap operas when I was younger (my mother did not approve). Sometimes we would go stay with my grandparents for a little while at a time in the summer and my memories of these times include, wrapping up in one of my grandmas quilts she made watching soap operas, working in the garden, snapping beans, etc., picking cherries, shopping with her, camping with them, and riding in the truck with Grandpa.

I thought my grandparents were rich because when I went shopping with Grandma she would let me pick out stuff to buy. "Put it in the cart," she'd say. I think my grandparents are rich in a way, they live so foreign to the times today with only using cash, never having any debt, never owning a credit card, providing for themselves, I don't think many people live like that anymore. Talking about foreign to times today, when my Grandma gets a new car, she has them order her a car that has no power windows, no power locks, no nothing. She is so funny.

When I am around my family, it is inevitable that someone will end up calling me Treva. It is not always meant in a complimentary way, but it doesn't bug me. I like being like my grandma, quirks and all.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a little paranoid. Okay, a lot paranoid. It is an inherited trait passed down through the generations. It may have skipped my dad though, I can't really say.

Trevan's five generation picture.

Trevan is in my great grandmother's lap (she turned 99 in April), my grandma, dad, and me. Not the best photo of me, Trevan was almost three months old, so I still had a lot of baby weight.

My Granny Cole, Treva's mother, my great grandmother is a paranoid person, passed it on to her daughter, now I carry on the torch proudly, and may have passed it on to my son, even though I try to be really careful not to push my paranoia on to him. Every family needs a worry-wart, or two, or three. I think our family is covered.

Grandma has lots of great wives tales to tell too. You can expect to hear this from her when you have a new baby: "Don't stick your hands in cold water if you're nursing, because you'll get the 'weed' (mastitis), you will." Never yet have I got the "weed," and heavens knows I don't have the patience to wait until the water gets warm to wash my hands. But, my grandmother swears that is true. Well, she doesn't swear. We aren't supposed to swear. I have never heard her swear, she got mad at me once because I said 'darn it.' In her book, that is just a substitution, and not acceptable.

My grandparents are religious. Not the same religion as mine, but they live our religion better than a lot of "Mormons" live our religion. My grandparents help a lot of people. I can't say that to be sure, because they don't talk about how they help people, I just know they do. I know they give produce from their garden away freely to people, and have heard her concerned about people not having food over the holidays.

I have a lot of memories camping with my grandparents. My grandma made me pee in a coffee can if I had to use the bathroom late at night when we were camping instead of walking to the restrooms. I think that may be why I am scarred from using the woods for a bathroom.

Granny Cole, Grandma & Grandpa

I think we were pretty spoiled growing up. With both sets of our grandparents living a mile away from each other, we got to see them often. My dad was also an only child, so we had our grandparents to ourselves. I never really thought about it when I was younger, but thinking about it now, it was nice not having to share them with any cousins. I'm so selfish.

Grandma and her girls

My Grandma turned 80 last month. Seriously. Have you ever seen eighty candles on a birthday cake? Talk about feeling some heat.

My brother, Jeryl and sister, Marianne doing the honors.

Grandma started blowing on the candles right away, she was afraid something was going to catch on fire.

My Grandma is eighty years old and can work circles around people half her age or younger. No joke. She will make you feel lazy. I promise! They have a lot of huge gardens, and they can their food, and provide food for themselves, and really our whole family. They raise their own cows and pigs to give us great sausage and beef. Seriously, the best sausage you will ever, ever eat in your life. Seriously. You basically have to put oil in the pan to fry that sausage.

We always looked forward to breakfast at Grandma's house. She made the best scrambled eggs. No one can make scrambled eggs like my Grandma and my dad. My Grandma was a good cook. I would like to think of her as a Martha Stewart of her time and location. She grew up in the sticks of West Virginia, there was no Food Network Channel, there are no amazing restaurants where she lives, she never ate exotic foods (for example, she tried pistachios for the first time this past year and thought they seemed moldy), she didn't make gourmet foods, but she was a good cook. When someone discredits that, I want to punch them in the nose. Granted, she doesn't cook the same as when we were younger, she does what is easiest now. The day my Grandma stopped making home-made biscuits, part of me went into mourning. Have you ever heard of Formula L? Run in the opposite direction. They say it is good, no comparison.

Anyhow, my Grandma is a good cook, not just that her food tastes good, but she knows what combinations, amounts, substitutions, etc. turn out. You have a question about food, or what will happen if you mix certain ingredients, she can tell you. If you want to know how to can anything she can tell you. She doesn't have to use a cookbook or measuring utensils, she just knows, and she cooks what she knows. Had she been raised in a different environment, been able to watch the Food Network Channel, received any education in that area, she would have been another Martha Stewart. You can tell she enjoys cooking and baking. She made a feast for any holiday, or whenever we are together. I know if she had had been in a different place and had more knowledge of the different kinds of foods, she could have been pretty spectacular. When I found out she had enrolled herself in cake decorating classes a long time ago, I thought that was the coolest thing. She had that desire to learn something new and be creative. I think that's where I get my creative bug from, her and my dad.

She would often make us doll cakes for our birthday.

My Grandma could sew. She worked for the Maidenform factory. She would make us nightgowns and slips out of scraps from her job. She makes quilts, lots and lots of quilts. I think what my Grandma does without having learned from books or someone teaching her is pretty amazing. Just imagine what she could have done had she had any training in any of these areas is pretty great. She is quite talented, and I don't think she gets the credit she deserves for being so talented all on her own accord.

My grandma always wrote to us in college. I always enjoyed reading her letters, and enjoyed the money that was tucked in the envelope as well. There are a few words of wisdom I will always remember from my Grandma.

After John and I got married, I was able to truly see the bull in the china shop that I had married. That man spilt more milk in our living room floor than a two year old did. Seriously. We didn't have a table, it was a really small apartment, and instead of squeezing in at the bar, we usually just ate in the living room on the floor. He spilt a lot of milk. Well, milk stinks in your carpet after a while if you don't get it cleaned up really good, and our carpet stunk A LOT! It really, really bugged me. I was telling my Grandma about it on the phone, and she laughed, but then said, "You know what they say, don't cry over spilled milk."

The other time was when we lived in Maryland, and I was talking to her on the phone, and I was complaining about not having a lot of money and this was our conversation,

"Do you have food to eat?" She asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Can you pay your bills?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well, it sounds like you are pretty well off to me," she said.

She's so wise, my grandma.

I just love my Grandma's laugh. I love her expressions, I love it when she is serious about something, and she says, "you know that?" I love her "grandma hugs," which are similar to "Jeryl or Heather hugs." (If you aren't in my family, those are the kinds of hugs where you barely touch the person and pat them lightly on the back)

I'm lucky to have such a wonderful grandma. Feel free to call me Treva anytime. I'll accept that compliment. I love her guts.